SRK became a star as he was not marred by ego like others: Anurag Kashyap

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap says actors, who come from outside the industry, tend to lose focus after getting early success, but those from filmy families don’t let the career highs get the better of them.

Kashyap, who has mostly worked with outsiders except for “Dev D” which featured Abhay Deol and “Bombay Velvet” that starred Ranbir Kapoor, said because star kids grow up seeing successes and failures in their families, they are well prepared to handle their own.

“I’ve often seen that the children who grow up in the film industry, they are more stable. The actor, who comes from outside, does one film and goes mad. This is a fact, I am saying from my experience of 23 years,” Kashyap said during a session at the ongoing Jagran Film Festival.

“You must’ve seen their greatest performance in their first film and then wondered why is he doing useless roles. He can’t deal with success. He doesn’t have the respect to handle success and failure,” the director said.

Kashyap also pointed out that one of the rampant problems with the actors in the country is that they spend time in comparing themselves with others rather than concentrating on their own work.

Citing an example of superstar Shah Rukh Khan, the director said many who came into Bollywood after him couldn’t emulate his success because they were marred by their ego.

“When Shah Rukh Khan came from Delhi from theatre, he became a star. Many who came after him couldn’t. He used to do small roles in theatres but people who used to do big roles couldn’t be stars. Star is a different thing, acting is a different thing,” he said.

“Problem starts when people start looking at themselves in third person when it comes to acting. Many actors’ career got over because even before doing anything, they started comparing,” Kashyap said.

“The comparisons are unreal. ‘Because I consider myself a better actor, I must get paid more than him.’ Many people get finished due to this,” he said. The “Raman Raghav 2.0” helmer spoke about the importance of casting, and said an actor can’t hold success for long if he or she is not cast properly in a film.

“I don’t repeat my actors. I find actors according to my roles and often the actors already have 50 per cen elements of the roles. Casting is also an art. No matter how big an actor you become, if your casting is not right, then you won’t go anywhere,” he pointed out. “The role, the casting and your talent, unless they match together, you will never feel you got in life what you deserve. This comes from personality and life experience,” he said.

On why he works less with known faces, Kashyap said the budget of his movies doesn’t allow him to cast established actors.”I make small budget films, hence I work with newcomers. Because I can shoot on roads with them, nobody recognises them. I don’t have any fascination to launch somebody. My film’s economy doesn’t allow me to work with known faces,” he said.
PTI